Dueling Monsters
by fakescorpion
Summary: Mahaad learns to play Duel Monsters. It is difficult, confusing, life threatening... and apparently he is a complete amateur. Dark Magician/Dark Paladin friendship... why is there no Dark Paladin tag!


___disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or any of its characters._

_Not many people write about the Duel Spirits, and that is just sad._

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**Dueling Monsters****  
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_**Dark Renewal**_

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Mahaad remembered dying.

It was painful, the glistening sharp blade of the tomb trap cutting mercilessly through his skin and with the last incantation falling from dry lips, his soul was torn forcefully from his flesh. He had meant for it to happen, sure, but it did not hurt any less.

After the tragedy in Egypt, Mahaad slept. He expected eternal condemnation, for he had broken the most important law that all souls must obey, thus been forever locked out of the afterlife by his own hands, but that was fine. His Pharaoh was still out there, one half sealed in darkness, but surely the other half would one day reincarnate. And so Mahaad would gladly wait in the shadows, to once again serve his king.

He would wait.

He would wait.

He would...

Knock.

Mahaad opened his eyes to the darkness that was becoming so familiar, but something was different.

It appeared that he wasn't a scattered soul floating aimlessly within nothingness as he first thought, but as himself while garbed in heavy armor, and... Mahaad felt around with his hands, noting the staff held in his right palm. It seemed that he was trapped within some sort of long box, a sarcophagus or...

Mahaad pushed at the wooden lid, which was surprisingly easy to open, and pale light unlike that of the desert sun poured in, temporarily blinding his eyes. His mind reeling, since he was very sure that life had left him, so why...? His unguarded fingers clasped at the gold-plated sides of the delicately carved coffin, and slowly Mahaad sat up to look around.

And found that a large jag-edged emerald adorned blade was held mere inches from his exposed throat. Mahaad's held on his scepter tightened though he didn't make any provoking move, and he looked to his would-be assaulter to observe the backside of a full body armor the mix shade between deep green and gray, with golden linings.

The man was turned to the other side, gazing into the distance, and Mahaad could not see his face. "Took you long enough," the other man said, in a language that's at once foreign yet completely understandable. And despite the blade, his voice was neutral and without any hint of hostility, though the particular inflection of his baritone was very familiar to Mahaad for reasons that he could not grasp.

"What are you?" the stranger asked, still not turning around. The question was odd to say the least, but despite his hard-to-place suspicion and curiosity, Mahaad decided to answer truthfully. "I am Mahaad."

That earned a light chuckle from the man, the note of amusement as obvious as it was unexpected. "I didn't ask who you are, young lad, I asked what you are."

Mahaad is puzzled. "I... do not fully understand your question."

"Let me go first then," the man said, finally withdrawing the threatening blade. "I am a Dark type Spellcaster, level 8. My hobby is deadly magic and dragon slaying." The man introduced himself, the flatness of his tone make it hard to tell if he was joking.

And that was when the mysterious man decided to turn, looking straight at him with a stoic expression that betray the well-hidden mirth dancing in his ominous golden eyes. Immediately Mahaad tensed, but for another reason, for he was staring right at a face completely mirroring his own, identical almost to the last feature except the twin lines of black kohl cutting down his cheeks and the wrongly shade of pale green.

"I am Dark Paladin, now, but a long time ago my name also... _was_... Mahaad."

Dark Paladin- LV8: ATK 2900/DEF 2400

Mahaad was speechless.

Though apparently, Dark Paladin was not patient enough to wait for him to collect his thoughts and string his questions together. And the magician knight then prodded the empty air before the confused former Egyptian priest, and lights gathered, forming a floating rectangular formation slightly smaller than the size of a hand. He proceeded to snatch whatever that was out of the air.

"Dark Magician, huh?" Dark Paladin read, "ATK 2500... Good states, but no effect."

"W-What...?" Mahaad asked, thoroughly confused. "What's that?"

"A card," Dark Paladin explained, returning the flat rectangular object and placing it into the former priest's hands, "That is you." And as Mahaad observed the so-called card, he couldn't help but drew similarities between it and his summoning stone tablet, though this was definitely more detailed.

Dark Magician- LV7: ATK 2500/DEF 2100

A thundering roar severed his train of thoughts, and the next instant, Dark Paladin was pulling him out of the blood-mahogany Dark Renewal coffin as what seemed like the sky started raining lightning down on them. "Move it, Dark Magician, I did not revive you so you can get killed again," the dark magician knight said, but oddly calm about the whole situation as he took to the sky. "Looks like my Nightmare's Steelcage Spell cannot hold another turn."

Mahaad soared after the other magic wielder, not sure he should be more horrified by the unknown thunder beast chasing after them or by the idea that Dark Paladin could be so nonchalant about disturbing the deceased.

Another bloodcurdling roar and Mahaad turned, to see a dragonish twin-headed beast with scarlet scales and deadly talons flying over the mountaintops, blasting electricity bolts from his large horns.

Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon- LV7: ATK 2800/DEF 2100

The next thunder struck, missing the two spellcasters by mere breaths, and the single tail of the twin-headed beast split apart, morphing into two electric-charged whips that stretched for what seemed like a mile long.

Though understanding the bleakness of having the whole sky raining thunder, Mahaad was determined as he held up his emerald staff, but unexpectedly, he was tackled from the side when a firm hand held onto his wrist to halt the counter attack. "Do not be so rash," Dark Paladin whispered quietly into his ears and as the magician knight pointed his large jagged sword with his left hand, Mahaad could distinctly feel the other man's broad chest against his back.

"Set Trap activates, Card Defense!" Dark Paladin commanded in an unwavering voice, and that was when Mahaad noticed two so-call cards hovering obediently beside Dark Paladin just like his own fluttering in the wind beside him.

One of them is a deep-violet card that showed the picture of Dark Paladin, facing their supposed opponent as did his own, and Mahaad frowned in puzzlement when he saw the ATK points written there. "You have a higher ATK than that dragon?"

Dark Paladin ignored him and sliced through the second shimmering card. "I discard a hand to negate your attack!" He cried out, and millions of brown-black cards suddenly swirled around them, forming a whirlwind of card wall that blocked out the lightning strikes.

"You have a higher ATK point, why do you not subdue it?" Mahaad asked again. Dark Paladin finally turned to look at him, but due to them being in such close quarter, the angle of their faces was awkward. At least, from his perspective, while the other man seemed to not notice.

"You are a terrible duelist, Dark Magician, you know that?" Dark Paladin said with a soft but contained laugh, letting go of his wrist to gesture at their surroundings. "Field Spell, Mountain," he said, then pointed to the two long tails of Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, "and there are two Electro-Whips, they are Equip Spells.

"Now look at its states again."

Mahaad did, and widened his eyes in surprise.

Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon- LV7: ATK 3600/DEF 2900

"Also, we can never be too careful because set card on the field cannot be seen," Dark Paladin said. The unrelenting lightning assaults slowly died down, and Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon let out a displeased roar at being cheated out of victory.

"Due to Card Defense's effect, I get to draw another card!" Dark Paladin announced, and light gathered forming the shape of a greenish card as Mahaad watched on in awe. "Looks like we are in luck," Dark Paladin gave his fellow spellcaster a subtle wink, and before Mahaad could understand what was happening, he was unceremoniously pushed forward.

"W-Wait!"

"Since I have a Dark Magician on my field, I can activate Spell, Dark Magic Attack!" Dark Paladin said in a tone clearly meant as an order, the card he had just draw from thin air vanished, turning into purplish-black light that circled Mahaad.

Immediately Mahaad felt the strong compulsion to attack, and through sheer instinct he swirled his scepter, gathering the sinister black lights that danced round him into an energy ball before launching the condensed magical destruction wave in all direction!

The Mountain field crumbled around them, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon shrieked in rage as its Electro-Whip tails were severed, and a maroon-purple card showing the picture of red lightning blasting from the heaven appeared for an instant before being obliterated.

Dark Paladin's lips curved into a barely-there smirk. "You set Divine Wrath to trap me, how devilish." The opposing dragon beast bellowed in anger, but now, also in obvious fright. "And now I can end this duel,** Shadowless Slash**!"

Dark Paladin- LV8: ATK 2900 vs. Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon- LV7: ATK 2800

Energy blades blasted from the tip of Dark Paladin's sword, slicing cleaning through that massive dragon. It cried out in agony as its two heads were chopped off, but then Mahaad snapped back to attention when he heard a distinguishably more human cry.

There was a human riding on that dragon! Mahaad was shocked to discover. It was a young woman in short red hair, wearing animal pelt, with a collective set of drum-like instruments.

Thunder Nyan Nyan- LV4: ATK 1900/DEF 800

She fell for awhile before leveling with the two spellcasters, floating amid the shadow nothingness since the Field Spell was destroyed. She had sparkling tears in her eyes as Dark Paladin points his blade, "My Dark Magician can still attack..."

"W-What?!" Mahaad was horrified by the thought of child murder, but his companion was not done.

"Dark Magician, attack Thunder Nyan Nyan directly!" Dark Paladin commanded, and once again, Mahaad was overwhelmed by the impulse to obey and could not help but raised his scepter at the young woman.

"... no..." he whispered, sadly and regretfully, but it was no use.

Dark Magician- LV7: ATK 2500 vs. Thunder Nyan Nyan- LV4: DEF 800

The girl's scream was a terrifying shriek that echoed indescribable pain as she was decimated, and Mahaad could only watch without understanding as he was forced to take the life of a mere child.

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"How long are you going to sulk?" Dark Paladin asked as he crossed his arms, it had been for quite some time that he and Dark Magician had been levitating in the middle of this emptiness waiting for the Spirit Realm to generate the next random Field Spell. But to make matters worse, his companion had personal trouble with getting over the fact that he had just killed a kid. "It is not a big deal."

Mahaad threw his twin double a nasty look. "You forced me to mercilessly slaughter a child!" he bit out scathingly, "And you cannot see how wrong that is?!"

Dark Paladin opened his mouth as if to retort, but then he frowned, confused. "I don't, actually. What are you so angry about?"

Mahaad tried not to scream. "Everything!"

"You will need to elaborate on that," Dark Paladin signed, rubbing his temple, "I am not trying to irate you, but I really do not get your point."

"First thing, you mind controlled me!" Mahaad accused, "Why?"

Dark Paladin looked at the less experienced spellcaster for a long while. "We are Duel Spirits," he said slowly, locking eyes with Dark Magician to make sure he could fully comprehend his words. "Not only you, we are all compelled to attack or defend when ordered to."

That left Mahaad speechless.

Dark Paladin rolled his eyes, turning back to inspect the five cards that hovered at his side. A new hand for the next round, but seriously, sometimes his drawing luck really sucked. "You could replenish your hand, too, since our last duel had ended."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Mahaad muttered darkly, the reality of what merging his soul with his spirit monster really mean finally hitting him. This was not what he had expected.

Dark Paladin watched the LV7 spellcaster glide off, and he could only shake his head. "At least be on your guard!" he called after Dark Magician, worried despite keeping his face neutrally blank. "Do not attack blindly since I am sure you have no idea what is a flip-effect."

Dark Magician huffed in frustration, turning around to glare at him with arms crossed and staff hanging loosely by his side. "I am not going to attack anybody, unlike you," he said, unconsciously turning himself to the defense position... then chains appeared from the void without warning, locking his wrists before yanking back to trap him on a wooden board. Mahaad was too stunned to be afraid when a deadly guillotine forms overhead, gleaming as it dropped. And Dark Paladin cursed, calling up his cards.

"Quick-Play Spell activates, Double Cyclone!" Dark Paladin cried, and twin twisters of golden and scarlet blasted forth, taking another of his cards also, and Mahaad shut his eyes as the Trap card Mystic Guillotine was destroyed by the colored winds.

Dark Magician staggered a bit as he was released from the chains.

"First rule," Dark Paladin said, "Everything here is trying to kill you. Everything. So do well to remember it."

"Even you?" Mahaad asked dryly.

"See? You are learning."

"... That is not at all funny."

"I was not trying to be."

Mahaad looked at the other man, and really, his almost identical feature was carefully blank, devoid of any emotions. Mahaad did not know what to think. Dark Paladin was a heartless killer that had again saved his life.

This place in general was too strange for his liking.

A low hum echoed, interrupting his thoughts. And suddenly they were out in the open sky, with no ground below as far as the eyes could see, as a strong rising wind current carry them infinitely higher. An eagle screeched, circling over them once before flying off.

Now, Mahaad had to battle his innate human preferences to be earthbound. "What is this?"

"Field Spell, Rising Air Current," Dark Paladin answered, as if being thrown through the blue sky upward was the most natural thing in the world. "I am going to..."

"Attack it?" Mahaad scoffed.

What he did not expect was for Dark Paladin to suddenly swing his long jagged sword backward and held up his left hand, congregating a powerful magical spell. The entire dimension convulsed, before the width of the whole sky _cracked _like broken china. A falcon screeched in disapproval from a distance and they were plummeting downward through the emptiness, before abruptly landing in a tangled mess on hard concrete.

The landing was not painful, but it still left Mahaad dazed. Dark Paladin blinked, one of his cards vanished as payment for the activation of his effect, and he frowned when finally realizing what his amateurish past-self had done.

"You just had to try, did you?" Dark Paladin sighed.

Mahaad was confused. "What did I do?" he asked, as he tried to crawl out from under the weight of the fellow spellcaster, but unfortunately, the magician knight had barbed spikes on his heavy armor on the leg and elbow areas, and himself on the side of his knees. The result was that they were so thoroughly tangled, when they tried to move together, they ended up collapsing on top of each other again.

"Stay still," Dark Paladin commanded, holding his younger clone down with his more powerful brute to get up first. "I _told_ you, we are all compelled to attack when ordered to, and you just had to try?" he asked, holding out a helping hand. Dark Magician still wore the flustered look on his face.

"I did not know you have the ability to literally tear apart the sky."

Dark Paladin shrugged. "A Spell is a Spell," he said turning to look out over the metal railings to study the new Field that they now walked. "You destroyed miles worth of mountain range, too, did you not?"

"I supposed," Mahaad nodded sheepishly, recalling his first attack within this spiritual realm, "I did not realize I have that kind of magical power, either."

"We follow very different laws here, Dark Magician. You are one of the unique few in that you still retained the memory of humanity, but what you know of the nature, time, or physics does not apply here. So you have a lot to learn."

Mahaad hesitated. "You once told me that you are me, from the future."

Dark Paladin nodded slowly, turning back to look at his past-self. "Of the future, Dark Magician. The time of this realm is not linear, unlike the parallel side. I am from _now_, existed only as long as you did, and not a moment more; but I am of your future, so since my birth, I am already millenniums more experienced."

Mahaad contemplated lightly, though not trying to understand with his still too-human mind. "What happened to your humanity?"

Dark Paladin's stoic expression softened somewhat, and he poked the former priest in the chest. "Maybe it is here."

There was an uncomfortable silence, and though uncertain, Mahaad had to ask. "You... do not remember the Pharaoh?"

The magician knight turned away from the question, finding interest in looking at his two remaining hand cards. "I still know _of_ him, if it would make you feel better," he answered after a long thought, "But I no longer know him as a person."

Mahaad stared, but then could not help but let out a small laugh, though there was nothing particularly amusing at all. "Why must you always speak in riddles?"

"You have only yourself to blame," Dark Paladin gave him a pointed look. "Anyway, since you have indirectly caused me to waste pretty much my entire hand, I believe it only fair if you be the one to set the Traps while we rest?"

"Stop," Mahaad held up a hand, "You lost me there, what is set traps?"

Dark Paladin blinked at him, which on other people would mean that he was staring at him like he had just asked where the Nile was. Then he rubbed his furrowed brows tiredly. "I keep forgetting you are new to our ways," Dark Paladin admitted, walking over to him. "Draw five cards, that is your starting hand."

Mahaad had no idea how to do that, but thankfully, the reality apparently knew what he need and five cards appeared from nowhere hovering before him. Then he received an awfully complicated crash course on the different card colors and universe gaming rules from Dark Paladin.

Dear Ra, Mahaad could not in his good conscious believe that this was an entire world revolving around kill and be killed. And this was where he would spend the rest of his existence.

"We are Duel Spirits, it is in our name."

The fact that Dark Paladin could not see another way of life was just an added twisted bonus.

"I see that you have a decent hand, see this? It is Premature Burial. If you wandered off and got killed, equip this to yourself, it would hurt a bit but it could get you out of the graveyard," Dark Paladin concluded, teaching Mahaad the basics.

"I understand."

"Good. So if you would excuse me, I really need some rest. Oh, I almost forget, this is Skyscraper field, so do _not_ pick fights with any Elemental HEROs because you would more likely than not lose." Dark Paladin cautioned. He then picked out the deep-violet card that represented himself and flipped it to face down, before positioning it on the ground.

Mahaad did not bother asking what a skyscraper was, and he was surprised once again when Dark Paladin completely disappeared, in his place an enlarged version of that brown-black swirl card back. It was floating a few inches off the ground with nothing in between, and Mahaad could not figure out how Dark Paladin could fit.

He stood beside the card for a few more minutes before things started to get awkward again, and so Mahaad tentatively jab the conspicuous flat summoning tablet.

Dark Paladin pushed up his card with an annoyed frown and made it half-slant to the side, and Mahaad discovered that there really was a subspace under the thing before he noticed the drastic change in the magician knight's attire. For one, the majority of his heavy armor was gone, leaving him in an extremely form-fitting dark suit; and for another, his silver hair was loose, flowing down to his waist.

Mahaad looked the other way at once, flustered at his accidental intrusion of personal space. "I didn't know... cough... I am sorry."

"You are such an amateur."

"Wh-What?" Mahaad stuttered in embarrassment, keeping his eyes down since Dark Paladin was making no move to redress. It turned out to be a big mistake, as the next instant Mahaad found himself flat on his back, Dark Paladin straddling his waist with the gigantic multi-bladed sword across his throat.

"If you want to attack a face-down card, do it quickly," Dark Paladin answered. There was actually a light smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "And don't apologize."

"Fair enough," Mahaad replied, but not without some difficulty. "Can you get off me now?" Dark Paladin did, but the amusement behind his gold eyes was still there, and he was still underdressed.

"You are lucky I am not a Man-Eater Bug."

"... I have no idea what that is, but I hope that is not an innuendo of some kind."

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Mountain was always misty; Rising Air Current was eternally clear and sunny; and as those Spells, the field of Skyscraper would be a perpetual midnight.

The moon overhead was too large and too unreal.

The timeline was tangled and static.

It would be decades or centuries or millenniums before his Pharaoh would call for his service once again. But between now and then and the future, Mahaad stood alone and confused.

In this realm, there was no passing of a day.

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_Not sure if this will continue since it's pretty self-contained. The original idea is to let random duel monsters duel each other._


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